going green #2: Jay Shafer's tiny house

Meet Tumbleweed, Jay Shafer’s 89 square foot house, which he built himself, learning how to do so as he went. Unlike me, who always needs more space, Jay loves living small and wouldn’t go back to “living big.” The house has lead to a business, the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, and he’s able to cart his house like a trailer right to job sites, or anywhere else he wants to go.

Though I couldn’t live this way, I would love for all the people who wouldn’t mind, or who would even enjoy it to do so, as it would free up a lot of land and resources. Actually, it would give me much more land on my 0.18 acres for log collecting and milling :) Maybe I’ll consider it. His house isn’t a whole lot bigger than the wood storage shed I built.

If I had a house like this, I could make my shop way bigger. I just couldn’t bring anything I made into the house afterwards. I’d probably start sleeping out in the shop, though, and using the house less and less.

The place isn’t any bigger than my first “apartment.” There was a motel that had little cottages as adverse to rooms and this guy bought it and rented them out as apartments. I had a chair in the middle of the room and could reach the bathroom door, the dining table, my coffee pot, the sink, stove, and bed without getting up. Biggest problem I see with his setup is laundry and bathroom space. Handy to be able to tote your house, but I think the lack of a laundry area would quickly get on my nerves.

As far as utilizing land and housing resources, I wish more people would invest in a used home and bring it up to date as adverse to buying/building a new house. In Michigan, abandoned homes are a real problem. Even building a new smaller house like this one is technically adding to pre-existing housing and taking up resources that were previously not utilized.

David

-- There is little that is simple when it comes to making a simple box.

Very intersting! There are washer/dryer units that go in RVs that are the size of a dorm fridge. Washes and dries in the same unit. Runs on 110v power. If one is really minimizing, you only have a few changes of clothes so washing by hand is not that unreasonable.

great vidio it´s just like campingwhen you do that , it seems to me everybody change mentality of how little they buy becourse they know the space is limitin the campingwagon even thow who place them at the same place the full ceson year after yearthe difficult part in that is you need a second wagon for the shop :—))